Lot
40

A SET OF TWELVE REGENCY MAHOGANY DINING-CHAIRS

ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Price realisedGBP 17,925

EstimateGBP 20,000 - GBP 30,000

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A SET OF TWELVE REGENCY MAHOGANY DINING-CHAIRS
ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Comprising ten side chairs and two open armchairs, each with scrolled tablet toprail centred by a shell, above a horizontal splat and padded drop-in seat, eight covered in aquamarine watered material, four side chair seats covered in cerise cotton, the armchairs with scrolled arms, on sabre legs, eight chairs with seat rail incised 'B', the leg joints strengthened with metal brackets, three chairs stamped 'I.YALLOT'(?) (12)

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Lot essay

The elegant frames of these 'Grecian' parlour chairs, with Ionic tablets carved with Venus-shell badges between wave-scrolled volutes, relate to hall and dining chairs supplied in 1810 for Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire by the celebrated St. Paul's Church Yard 'Upholder' George Oakley (d. 1841) (A. E. Reveirs-Hopkins, 'Sheraton Period Furniture for the Small Collector', Old Furniture Magazine, vol. 3, 1928, pp. 220-228, figs.7-9). Their shell carved top rails relate to the hall chairs produced by Gillows which feature a shell carved back. The shell-patterned back appears on hall chairs stamped by Gillows of Lancaster and illustrated in V. Slowe, Treasures from Abbot Hall, Kendal, Kendal, 1989, p. 6).

COLONEL NORMAN COLVILLE, M.C. (1893-1974)
Colonel Colville was an exceptional connoisseur-collector of the years immediately following the First World War, in which he had been wounded by poison gas. His superb collection of English furniture had a particular emphasis on seat-furniture, and he was very unusual among his contemporaries for his interest in upholstery beyond needlework, including magnificent decayed survivals of the grandest late 17th century coverings. His collection was well known to Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, compilers of the Dictionary of English Furniture in the 1920s, and many illustrations of his furniture were used in those volumes. That his collection was considered from an early date to be particularly strong in examples of chairs and upholstery is shown by an article by Margaret Jourdain devoted exclusively to seat-furniture in Country Life in October 1923. Margaret Jourdain described the collection as 'a remarkable gathering of fine and individual furniture'. More recently the late John Cornforth described Colonel Colville as 'a connoisseur with an exceptional eye for works of art'.

Cataloguing & details

Special Notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Provenance

Colonel Norman Colville, M.C. (1893-1974) and by descent.

Pre-Lot Text

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE COLONEL NORMAN COLVILLE, M.C. (1893-1974)